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Asia Earthquake (tsunami) - amma - 12-31-2004
On Sunday the 26th December at 8am local time, deep below the Indian Ocean, Allah (swt) -by His divine decree -ordered the seabed to violently shake. And by His (swt) command the shaking of the earth set in motion mighty waves to roar across the sea at speeds of up to 500kmph and heights of 10s of metres until the surging tides slammed into coastal towns and cities across the continent. The waves hit India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Siri Lanka, Thailand, Burma and several countries on the East coast of Africa causing a colossus of destruction and demolition.
Tens of thousands of lives have been lost and hundreds of thousands displaced from their homes and left vulnerable to disease and hunger.
Indeed, it is Allah (swt) alone who is the one who instructs the earth and the sea as He wishes, and it is He alone who takes life, and it is He alone who provides for his creation. The magnitude of this event should serve as a reminder to all those who witness it – that Allah (swt) is the almighty and all-powerful and the only one worthy of worship.
And by the grace of Allah (swt), Muslims and non-Muslims all over the world have been humbled by the forces that easily overwhelmed man. Many have been reminded of man’s dependence on his creator and how he exists only by Allah’s (swt) leave and His mercy.
At the same time we witness those who continue to surpass in their arrogance and their evil. Western powers have wasted no time in making great speeches of grief and concern and grand announcements of how they will rapidly make great strides to assist the disaster stricken people of the Asian earthquake.
However, it is important that some greatly significant facts/quotes are considered when viewing this ‘Hollywood’ display of humanity by Western governments.
Human disaster is not a new phenomenon –It is estimated that one third of all human deaths –some 18 million people a year (majority women and children) are due to poverty related causes such as starvation, diarrhoea, pneumonia etc which could be treated quite cheaply and easily.
The UN’s 2003 Human Development Report has demonstrated that the era of globalisation has accompanied such levels of poverty with a widening inequality gap, where the richest 5% of the world’s people receive 114 times the income of the poorest 5%.
The global capitalists system and concentrated the wealth in a few hands with nearly half the world’s population living on less than US$2 a day consuming a mere 1.25% of the world’s global product.
In 1998, the IMF, the World Bank and other international agencies loaned Indonesia (one of the victims of the earthquake) more than US$50 billion. But with the bailout came stringent restrictions. The IMF-imposed austerity measures which exacerbated the crisis. Between 1997 and 1998, according to the World Bank, the number of Indonesians living in poverty had doubled.
Prof. Jeffrey D. Sachs speaking at the World Bank, Washington stated: “The IMF starts with the truth that budget deficits should remain small in order to preserve macroeconomic stability. Then it demands budget austerity of impoverished countries to the point where those countries can't even keep their people alive. In addition, the IMF has repeatedly insisted on debt servicing that exceeds the combined spending of the health and education ministries.”
A senior aid official in a meeting on development cooperation in Addis Ababa in February 2004 commented. “Donors are playing a dangerous game. You come with inadequate amounts that are highly conditioned and fundamentally unreliable, then you insist on negotiating as though you are a valuable partner, then you are surprised that these governments don't trust you”
Conclusion
It is sickening to see the Western governments, particularly the US and the UK who have from their own initiative created a humanitarian disaster of greater proportions in Iraq, suddenly make great claims that they want to help the disaster stricken in the world.
Over the last few decades Western governments have shaped the global capitalist system to ensure that the world’s wealth concentrates in their own hands, and have used tools such as the world bank and IMF to consolidate poverty and famine in the poorest countries.
The countries affected by the aftermarth of this earthquake have long prior to this been suffering great poverty and famine and have therefore been unable to effectively respond to such a disaster. However as opposed to rushing to their aid when witnessing their permanent stare of poverty, it was the West who drove them to famine by means of the global capitalist system and using tools such as the IMF and world bank.
Therefore when Western governments rush to help disaster stricken countries – it is little more than hypocrital lip service – as the cause for the permanaent humanitarian disaster in the thrid world is the West itself.
Only a complete upheaval of the global capitalist system and independence from the West will lead the third world to an alleviation from their continual situation of poverty and suffering.
by Asif Dawood
Asia Earthquake (tsunami) - Deen - 01-01-2005
Assalaam Alaikum
A news reporter gave an example of imagining a mile long street being bombed by F-16's where everything is destroyed. Such is the extent of damage and pain felt by the Tsunami.
The thought immediately turned to Iraq where this is exactly happening all over Iraq. Children losing parents, mothers searching for their children under the rubble of bombed houses, wives mourning the death of their husbands etc. etc.
The pictures of people injured or dead are exactly the same as in Iraq but the difference is that one is due to man's actions and the other due to Allah's decision.
Is it not weird how people (especially in the West) react to natural disasters from such as the Tsunami. But at the same time have very little affection or concerns for those who are bombed by man i.e US/UK etc.
Do those very people who are for the war in Iraq i.e. seeing children and families killed etc. carry the same feelings for those of the Tsunami? How hypocritical is that indeed!
Asia Earthquake (tsunami) - umm Zachariah - 01-03-2005
Assalamu aleikum,
Just want to share with you something that a friend of mine has written in a local paper in Australia. I have asked for his permission to post it here. A little more insight when concerning Indonesia.
''I am deeply distressed for the people of Aceh.
I undertook linguistic field work over many years in Aceh, included the areas most heavily hit by the Quake and Tsunami. The Acehnese are coastal dwelling people, who almost entirely live on coastal plains, growing rice and fishing. Their lives are backgrounded by steep and impenetrable mountains No infrastructure will be found once you get past the narrow coastal strips: few roads, no resources, very few people. This disaster will have affected close to a thousand kilometres of coast-hugging communities, village by village, and region by region. The one long road that joined them all up will have now been cut in a thousand placed by water and quake.
Casualties in Aceh alone will surely number over a hundred thousands. Just from watching the film reports, and knowing the geography, this much is obvious. Most of the damaged areas have not even been been mentioned in the media. The main airport is half an hour's drive inland from the water's edge, and well above sea level, yet it too was affected by the sea. Even the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, now reported to have lost a third of its population, is several kilometres from the river mouth. Yet between Banda Aceh and the sea were still more villages and the destruction which reached the capital had already passed through these!
It is unbearable to think of village after village which I visited and knew well, now completely destroyed, communities dwelling there for centuries now a ruined memory. More than a million Acehnese will be left with no water, no means of livelihood, rice fields ruined by salt and flood, livestock and gardens destroyed.
The village Cot Trieng, near Bireuen, where I lived during my linguistic research was only a few metres above sea level. The families who hosted me and whom I drank coffee with and ate rice with every day will now be dead, or in the greatest torment of grief and shock imaginable as but a surviving remnant.
The Acehnese people number in the millions. Of those millions, this disaster will have affected every family and every community. Numberless villages will have been erased from the map. After a few hours of nature's work, whole dialects only exist now only in memory, or on our tape recordings. For the people who spoke them are no more.
After more than a decade of brutal military repression from the Indonesian authorities, and indeed after one hundred and thirty years of invasions, attacks and conflicts of one kind or anothers, this disaster eclipses them all for the battered people of Aceh. My heart weeps for them after this, the greatest calamity of them all.
Mark Durie''
Asia Earthquake (tsunami) - Muslimah - 01-03-2005
Bismillah
as salam alykom
I found this relevant hadeeth
Narrated Ahmed that Omar Ibn Al Khattab said that he heard the Messenger salla Allah a`alyhee wa sallam said: Not one night except that the sea gets prepared three times asking Allah's Permission to flood over people but Allah may He be Glorified prevents it" (reported by Ahmed)
Sobhan Allah the waves are nothing but part of Allah's soldiers, they are commanded and instructed to take this and leave that.
Asia Earthquake (tsunami) - umm Zachariah - 01-03-2005
Assalamu aleikum,
This is a very suitable hadith sister, explains this so well. Thank you for sharing.
Wasalam
Asia Earthquake (tsunami) - Muslimah - 01-03-2005
Alhamdulelah
Asia Earthquake (tsunami) - Deen - 01-03-2005
Quote: Narrated Ahmed that Omar Ibn Al Khattab said that he heard the Messenger salla Allah a`alyhee wa sallam said: Not one night except that the sea gets prepared three times asking Allah's Permission to flood over people but Allah may He be Glorified prevents it" (reported by Ahmed)
Wassalaam,
Bukhari - Volume 2, Book 17, Number 146:
Narrated Abu Huraira:
The Prophet said, "The Hour (Last Day) will not be established until (religious) knowledge will be taken away (by the death of religious learned men), earthquakes will be very frequent, time will pass quickly, afflictions will appear, murders will increase and money will overflow amongst you." (See Hadith No. 85 Vol 1).
Abu Hurayrah (Radhiyallaho anho) reported that the Prophet Mohammad (Sallallaho Alaihe Wasallam) said, "The shaheed are of five kinds:
(1) Those who die of plague,
(2) Those who die from stomach ailment,
(3) <b>Those who die from drowning</b>,
(4) Those who die under crumbling buildings etc.,
(5) and, the Shaheed in the way of Allah (on the field of jihad).
(Bukhari & Muslim)
The non-muslims ask the question, if Allah is kind then why does he send Earthquakes, floods and natural disasters etc.
The answer to this is that as muslims Allah SWT has given us the answers that what we may think/view is bad is actually good for us and what we view as good is actually bad, only Allah knows best and has full knowledge of all things/events.
It is Allah's knowledge which we cannot delve into as to why Allah SWT sent the Tsunami, but all we can say based upon the above hadith is that may Allah SWT bless and shower the muslims who have died from the Earthquake with his mercy.
Asia Earthquake (tsunami) - Muslimah - 01-04-2005
Bismillah
Mash a Allah Deen this is an excellent point Sobhan Allah, Allah's Wisdom can never be fully comprehend. But for our benefit and in order to realize much Allah Bestows His knowledge in different aspects for each one. I mean we see things from different angles to complement one another.
True non Muslims ask questions but Alhamdulelah we have answers of them the point brother Deen made.
Plus the following:
Alhamdulelah and prayer and peace be upon His Messenger Mohamed
Pondering about the whole situation, watching TV and seeing the horifying scenes and then thinking about it brought some ideas. I tried to put the ideas together into points may Allah Makes it easy for me to express and use the correct words.
1. The Messenger salla Allah A`lyhee wa sallam said in a hadeeth what means when the hour is close the number of earthquakes shall increase. What he said must prove to be true because he is the Messenger salla Allah a`alyhee wa sallam for those who reject taking the sunnah as a source of legislation in Islam.
"Ahmad relates in a hadeeth narrated by Abu Hurairah, radhiallahu `anhu, that the Prophet, sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam said, "The Hour will not happen until knowledge is taken out, time passes quickly, earthquakes increase in number, tribulations (fitan) appear, and al-Harj increases in number." It was said, "What is al-Harj, O Rasoolullah?" He said, "Al Qatl, al Qatl (Killing)". (Bukhar)
2. Non believers would say o your God is doing this. Now they admit Allah Exists which is a fundamental purpose even if later on they turn back not believing still they admitted it even once.
3. It hit Muslims who must wake up if u really look at the area of South East Asia, the emerging markets. They got carried out with economic development trying to catch up with the West to secure a position among THE DEVELOPED countries.
But development in which aspect and based on what? This is the point that must be discussed and looked into. Not all of course but the majority of Muslims living there are not practicing any more. Allah Has countless means to bring back mankind to Islam. Look at the coming Ayah:
“Apostles who gave good news as well as warning, that mankind, after (the coming) of the apostles, should have no plea against God: for God is exalted in power, wise.” (Quran 4:165)
O ya Allah look at these Ayats as well so clear and direct:
“Before thee we sent (apostles) to many nations, and we affected the nations with suffering and adversity, that they might learn humility.* When the suffering reached them from us, why then did they not learn humility? on the contrary their hearts become hardened, and Satan made their (sinful) acts seem alluring to them.* But when they forgot the warning they had received, we opened to them the gates of all (good) things, until, in the midst of their enjoyment of our gifts, on a sudden, we called them to account, when lo they were plunged in despair” (Quran 6:42-44)
4. What is the numerous international organizations are doing? Setting population policies, sending warnings specially to such countries against the accelerated rates of population growth. Isnt this happening? The USAID dedicates programs to curb the population problem. The Asian Tigers as the World Bank calls them are suffering (or let us say enjoy) over population problems. They usually complain of this problem and trying to take anti measures. Allah Taught them a lesson. It is not up to them, they don’t own the resources. Yes they can not feed themselves. Now the over population is gone plus the infrastructure as well. Let them show Allah how they will handle this.
5. Allah Is challenging the early warning systems. Challenging the scientific progress they are bragging about. Look how Allah Is Challenging:
“The likeness of the life of the present is as the rain which we send down from the skies: by its mingling arises the produce of the earth which provides food for men and animals: (it grows) till the earth is clad with its golden ornaments and is decked out (in beauty): the people to whom it belongs think they have all powers of disposal over it: there reaches it our command by night or by day, and we make it like a harvest clean mown, as if it had not flourished only the day before thus do we explain the signs in detail for those who reflect.” (Quran 10:24) Is there a more precise explanation to what happened than this?
Were they able to stop the crisis? Were they able to benefit of the advancement they attained? The transfer of Hi Tech. Was it useful to prevent Allah’s decree? No it was not.
6. While on the other hand, either those who were inflicted with the disaster or those who watched it on TV, now fully appreciate their condition. Those who were inflicted think about their stable condition they enjoyed even if it was modest or a low level. Others who watched it on TV fully and must appreciate the stability. I don’t think any of us can complain now because of a small home, limited food variety, limited financial resources or other. We must fully appreciate Allah’s bounties, see them with a more indepth viewpoint.
7. To realize Allah’s Power of keeping the earth stable
” And he has set up on the earth mountains standing firm, lest it should shake with you; “ (Quran 16:15)
“And we have set on the earth mountains standing firm, lest it should shake with them” (Quran 21:31)
“At it the skies are ready to burst, the earth To split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin,* That they should invoke a son for (God) Most Gracious.” (Quran 19:90)
“He set on the earth mountains standing firm, lest it should shake with you” (Quran 31:10)
Now we know exactly when earth is not stable under our feet how does it look again to appreciate Allah’s Power and creation.
8. The most important point is that what we saw is actually a rehearsal of the Day After, really it is and a reminder that:
“Say: The Death from which ye flee will truly overtake you: then will ye be sent back to the Knower of things secret and open: and He will tell you (the truth of) the things that ye did!” (Quran 62:8)
Really watching the news on TV I see the tidal wave extending and men are running, it reminded me of a clever cowboy who is extending the looped rope to get the escaping thief no matter how fast he runs, the rope catches him. Men were trying to escape, but in vain, the wave got them. You know why it got them? because the waves are commanded by Allah as the hadeeth say:
Narrated Ahmed that Omar Ibn Al Khattab said that he heard the Messenger salla Allah a`alyhee wa sallam said: Not one night except that the sea gets prepared three times asking Allah's Permission to flood over people but Allah may He be Glorified prevents it" (reported by Ahmed)
Death is so close it is us who forget and think we are here forever.
![[Image: post-2-1104695673_thumb.jpg]](http://islamsms.com/vb/uploads/post-2-1104695673_thumb.jpg)
These are only few points which may be derived of this crisis for it is impossible to comprehend all aspects of Allah's Wisdom.
Alhamdulelah who guided us for this and if it was not for Him we wouldn’t have been guided
Asia Earthquake (tsunami) - Deen - 01-05-2005
Alhamdulillah Muslimah you are correct as such events/disasters makes a muslim realise that these events are from Allah and a sense of fear overcomes the muslim which is the correct/sincere reaction.
It is also a message to those enemies of Allah who wish to extinguish the light of Allah SWT that Allah SWT is far more powerful than his enemies. Those who wish to play "god" only have a short time like Pharoah and his likes did as Allah SWT will soon bring them to task inshallah.
Asia Earthquake (tsunami) - ronniv93 - 01-06-2005
I have been silent around here for quite a while, but still continued to peruse the site. <b>THIS</b> topic in particular has caught my attention and compels me to post again.
WHY, did the original poster have to post such an article from a writer who is so negative and has nothing better to do than to criticize the so-called "West"? The "evil West" as so many Muslims like to portray are giving HUGE amounts of aid to these majority-Muslim areas that have been so devastated by this tragic event.
I don't see NOT ONE Muslim country coming anywhere even close to what these non-Muslim nations are doing.
If you add up all the aid being pledged by ALL Muslim countries together, it doesn't even come close to what the U.S., Australia, Germany and Japan are giving. It's not even as much as Italy is giving alone. It's stuff like this that makes people not care what the Muslim community thinks of us; it's always this victim role but never any appreciation whatsoever.
Why aren't more Muslim countries reaching out to help their own while at the same time finding nothing better to do than critize others?
<b>THAT</b> is true hypocrisy! How ungrateful.
List of World Donors to Relief Effort